The blog of Peirce College, located in Philadelphia, features coverage of continuing education, degree programs, and online learning for working adults interested in earning bachelor's degrees in business, information technology, healthcare, and paralegal studies. It also includes associate and graduate degree education information.

A bit of background for those of you who are unfamiliar: The Mid-Atlantic branch is part of ALSB International, an association of teachers and scholars in the fields of business law, legal environment, and law-related courses outside of professional law schools. The purpose of the ALSB is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, while encouraging support and cooperation among those who teach and conduct research in the field of legal studies.

Glenn Barnes, an Associate Professor of Legal Studies here at Peirce College, spent the past year serving as the President and Program Chair of the Mid-Atlantic ALSB. I asked him to share with us some of the highlights from the event, and he kindly agreed to do so. Read on for some of Glenn’s thoughts.

For an unprecedented third year in a row, Peirce College was selected by the members of the Mid-Atlantic Academy of Legal Studies in Business to host the annual conference. In the voting process that determines the destination, members cited the up-to-date facilities at Peirce, the college’s wonderful location at the center of Philadelphia, and the City of Philadelphia itself as reasons for holding the conference here. Well, we couldn’t be happier, and were honored to welcome our guests to the Peirce community yet again!

Twenty-one attendees representing 18 colleges and universities traveled to Peirce for this annual gathering of scholars. The group came from institutions throughout the mid-Atlantic region, as well as from institutions as far away as Georgia, Oklahoma, and Michigan.

The two-day conference kicked off on Friday afternoon, and continued Saturday with a day full of paper presentations to be considered for publication in the summer 2010 Atlantic Law Journal. Additional presenters who were not being considered for publication had shared their papers with the attendees on Friday afternoon.

Presentations covered legal topics ranging from the patenting of genes and antitrust implications of national sports bodies, to historical preservation law and the growing impact of Facebook and Twitter on the American legal system.

The editorial board of the Atlantic Law Journal, the publishing arm of the Academy, met on Friday night and completed its review of over 25 papers submitted by business law professors across the nation, conditionally choosing seven of them for its upcoming volume 11.

Overall, it was a very successful event, and we were happy to have another opportunity to host! As we look forward to the coming year, Peirce team members are more involved than ever in the academy and the field of legal studies overall. Legal Studies Professor Brian Halsey of Peirce was named the Editor-in-Chief of the journal for the upcoming year. I will be supporting him as Assistant Editor, and Carol Sherman, Associate Professor, Legal Studies, will be serving on the journal's editorial board.

Carol was also elected Vice President of the Mid-Atlantic Academy for the coming year. And while my term as President of the Mid-Atlantic ALSB has now officially come to an end, I was honored to be elected to hold the new title of Executive Secretary/President Emeritus.

A final thanks to all the members of the Mid-Atlantic ALSB for making the journey to Philadelphia to visit us at Peirce. Our door is always open!